Treating The Seed Traits Right

Many ag retailers added brand new seed warehouses to their facilities.

Many ag retailers have recently added brand new seed warehouses to their facilities.

Agriculture continues to enjoy a growing list of cool seed traits that encompass everything from insect control and drought tolerance to better nutritional and processing qualities. However, as the mix expands, it’s becoming more challenging to keep track of each product nuance and the special care entire fields might need.

Advertisement

Perhaps top-of-the-list in many growers’ minds lately is the addition of herbicide systems that allow applicators to use new modes of action in fields with glyphosate tolerant weeds. At presstime, EPA had just registered Dow AgroSciences’ Enlist Duo herbicide for use with Enlist corn and soybeans — which contain the trait for 2,4-D tolerance. The approval followed USDA’s clearance of the Enlist corn and soybean traits in September.

Top Articles
TFI: Phosphate and Potash Are Critical Minerals, Senate Bill to Solidify

Monsanto expects its Roundup Ready 2 Xtend system (featuring resistance to dicamba) to receive USDA approval by year’s end — with a projected launch in 2016. “Growers keep telling us we can’t get it to the market soon enough,” says Dan Anderson, corn product management lead with Monsanto.

Retailers, too, are anxious. “We are excited at the prospect of being able to help our customers control problem weed species like palmer amaranth and mares­tail,” says Brock Frasch, seed manager at Ceres Solutions, Crawfordsville, IN.

The systems have been in testing with a number of dealers as commercial use draws near. Todd Claussen, director of agronomy and technical services at Farmers Cooperative Co. (FC), Ames, IA, is well acquainted with the technology. He’s participated in in-field training sessions with the Enlist and dicamba programs, evaluated efficacy, conducted off-target application and drift demonstrations, and made nozzle-tip/volume/pressure applications with various adjuvant loads and drift retardants.

Neither system has an “easy” button, and there are risks involved in both, Claussen points out. “In addition to risk, I believe that there are specific situations and environments where one will have an advantage over the other. There are extenuating circumstances that will certainly be overlooked with each, and subsequent applications and education needs to be at the top of the list because these two systems are not interchangeable,” he emphasizes. In fact, Claussen fears growers look at these two systems as similar, maybe even identical.

Kevin Whitehair, seed agronomist and marketer with Mid Kansas Coop (MKC), Moundridge, KS, cites his concern about keeping fields organized, especially as some transition to the new technologies while others don’t. “I’m more concerned about that from a custom applicator’s standpoint than I am about drift,” he says.

There’s also some apprehension that some growers “will view the technology as ‘curing what ails ya’ — which simply isn’t the truth, despite what the market promises,” FC’s Claussen says. For instance, what if growers use the two systems and their respective chemical applications as “rescue” treatments, utilizing them as they did the original Roundup Ready soybean system in the late ’90s.

“These are tools that need to be used in an integrated system for overall best results in the battle with continued herbicide resistance and tolerance in the U.S.,” says Claussen. “They’re both valuable and valid in an effort to achieve acceptable and sustainable weed control levels at a cost that offers ROI.”

Dry Weather Stress

Many dealers have also been enthusiastic about the new drought-tolerance traits, some of which hit fields in force in 2012, just in time for a massive dry spell, no less.

Claussen says these products have been bred and selected to tolerate the stress of heat and periods with limited water — which means they are very robust and will tolerate overall crop stress.

“Alleviating stresses, even when a crop does not show the effects of the stress, will protect a higher level of performance and yield for any genetic package,” he’s found.

Monsanto’s Anderson sees DroughtGard as part of a system that involves a biotech trait, germplasm that’s got good stress tolerance, and the cropping plan that a grower is using to manage water in his area. “At the end of the day growers continue to tell us that they want to maximize their yields and profitability and to minimize risk,” he says. “A trait like this can help minimize risk. It doesn’t make a cactus out of a corn plant, but it does help provide some extensions if the weather turns dry.”

For 2015, Monsanto will be adding the DroughtGard trait to its Genuity VT Double PRO product (which offers two modes of action against above-ground pests).

Ceres’ Frasch says his company is offering several DroughtGard hybrids, and agronomists there try to place them in areas with less water-holding capacity.

Syngenta has developed the Agrisure Artesian trait to combat low moisture situations, plus the company just announced its Water+Intelligent Irrigation Platform (created with Lindsay Irrigation) for precision application of water resources. But the company is also working in the new area of research called Abiotic Stress Management — technology that reduces crop stress due to environmental factors such as excess water, heat and cold.

Pioneer’s Optimum AQUAmax hybrids use native corn traits. Available for an expanded range of maturity zones in 2015, they promise just over 3% better yields than conventional hybrids in normal years and 7% better yields in drought. Optimum AQUAmax hybrids were on about 10 million acres in the 2014 growing season.

FC’s Claussen admits there is already the miscon­ception at the farm gate that these hybrids are “overly defensive,” and they may not have the performance growers want in high-management scenarios.

Farm Needs Evolving

Growers’ buying decisions are shifting as their fields change. One example is the recent dramatic turn-around of corn rootworm pressures in the upper Midwest from 2012 and 2013 into 2014 — and the potential lower pressure going into 2015, says Claussen.

He’s found that today farmers are questioning the value of some of the trait packages, particularly in hybrid seed corn, and are willing to take the risk of corn hybrids with fewer insect traits — or even no insect traits — to lower near-term crop production input costs. In 2010 through 2012, the demand was full-trait conversions with refuge in a bag seed delivery.

In addition, Claussen says many growers are re-evalu­ating traits to control European corn borer (ECB). At least in Iowa, current populations of the pest are extremely low, and customers don’t see the value of a product with ECB traits compared with conventional hybrids.

Seed companies are also offering stacked traits designed to combat troubling insect resistance to long-established Bt products — a situation that’s been documented in a few selected areas in the Midwest.

Last November, DuPont Pioneer introduced its Optimum Leptra line with three traits/modes of action to control a broad spectrum of above-ground corn pests. The products contain a “pyramid of protection” that includes Herculex 1, YieldGard Corn Borer and Agrisure Viptera traits, added to locally developed and tested Pioneer hybrids.

Monsanto is developing its next generation above-ground-only product called Lep 3. It adds another mode of action for above-ground insects. Also in the works is a new corn rootworm package called Genuity Smartstax Pro. Here too, the company is adding a third mode of action.

Seed companies continue to engineer traits that offer benefits for the end user as well as for the grower. Syngenta is working to increase the productivity of renewable fuels made from traditional and non-traditional feedstocks. Its Enogen technology features the first biotech corn output trait for ethanol production.

“Growers who deliver their Enogen grain to a par­ticipating ethanol plant are paid an average premium of 40 cents per bushel,” says Duane Martin, product lead – commercial traits for Syngenta.

Challenges Ahead

As 2015 approaches, dealers face a number of issues surrounding seed, among them the impact of lower commodity prices on sales. MKC’s Whitehair says it’s pretty hard for customers to reduce seed purchases — their acres still need to be planted. Rather, retailers will face buyers’ cut-backs in fertility and chemical programs. “They’re being more price-conscious, and that just ramps up the competition and margin-cutting,” he adds. Indeed, recently the competition for all input dollars seems particularly intense in his company’s large Kansas territory where five to 10 suppliers can be vying for each grower’s business. Then too, he’s found growers just don’t seem to understand why commodity prices can drop by half and there’s no adjustment in seed costs.

Ceres’ Frasch believes declining crop prices mean growers should not be taking any risk with seed and 2015 yields. “It’s imperative for growers to plant what has performed well for them in the past,” he says. “There will be some initial knee jerk reactions to look at other options like non-GMO products, lower cost suppliers and reduced trait combinations, but I believe that it’s more important to plant the hybrids and trait combinations that have proven themselves in the past. Losing 10 to 15 bushels per acre taking risks with new products and trait combinations could be the difference between being profitable in 2015 and not.”

Monsanto’s Anderson agrees. He sees growers going back, looking at their data, looking to see what increased their profitability in the past. “They’re looking at their inputs and scrubbing their numbers hard. They’re still looking at products that increase yield on per acre basis and get a return on investments,” he says.

Placement, Population

In fact, one of the major changes in the seed industry in the last few years has been the focus on utilizing data to make more profitable decisions, says Ceres’ Frasch. “Our use of new tools like the R7 Tool, FieldScripts and Climate Pro has given us the ability to recommend products for the right environment, at the right population, and they’ve given us insights into how to manage fields for the higher yields. We have seen a large adoption of new technologies like variable-rate seeding and nitrogen applications because of the results that have been achieved,” he explains.

Ceres uses Winfield’s Answer Plot System which offers data on how competing seeds perform at different populations, nitrogen rates and ro­tations. In 2014 the company launched its own Ceres Insight Trial program — with 30 Insight trials and side by side comparisons — and looks to expand it in 2015.

“These trials also give us insights into different agronomic practices and how they performed,” says Frasch. “This information is critical on managing products for their highest potential.”

Monsanto’s Anderson also emphasizes that it’s important to not only place seed right but to manage it properly. “We learn a lot about our products as we are developing them, and can provide retailers with information on our products that they can then take to the grower,” he says.

One cropping variable that’s getting a lot of attention these days is planting populations. “We realize that plant populations are one of the biggest driving factors impacting yields. Different hybrids respond differently to different populations,” Anderson says.

Syngenta has been conducting seeding rate trials on new hybrids across various yield environments for over 20 years. The company has a large database to determine the ideal seeding rate per yield environment as well as individual hybrid response information that helps customize the prescription based on individual hybrid characteristics

Syngenta’s Martin cautions retailers about the value of placing too much emphasis on some population adjustments. “It’s often self-satisfying to look at and use intricate seeding rate recommendations even though the scale of difference in recommendations per management zone may be quite small. Recommendations often may be as small as increasing seeding rates by 2,000-3,000 seeds per acre across zones,” he says. “But it’s important to remember that yield differences as a result of seeding rate changes will be difficult to observe with changes less than 6,000 seeds per acre.”

He also questions the concept of site-specific hybrid planting, where growers/retailers try to match the potential of the soil with the best hybrid. “A much simpler way of accomplishing the same goal is to focus on development of hybrids that are more broadly adapted to different environments,” he says. One example he cites is Syngenta’s Agrisure Artesian hybrids which perform well across widely adapted across environments. They maximize yield when it rains and increase yield when it doesn’t.

And really, maximizing yields is what the science of traits is all about. “In the end, one truth remains the same regardless if the commodity price of corn is $2.75 or $6.75: It’s still about the bushels,” summarizes FC’s Claussen.

0
Advertisement